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New Round of Burundi Peace Talks Ends Without Gains
The latest round of Burundian peace talks concluded Thursday without new results, according to a report from Arusha, northern Tanzanian.
The report said delegates failed to resolve the thorny issues as the rebels remained dissident to lay down their arms.
The delegates of all the 19 signatories of the Burundian Peace and Reconciliation Agreement have formed three committees, but could not reach an agreement on who would be the president of the transitional government during their six-day talks since last Saturday.
They have chosen six candidates, from both the Hutu and the Tutsi ethnic, for the only presidency in the transitional government as required by the peace agreement.
They include current President Buyoya; former President Jean- Baptiste Bagaza of the pro-Tutsi PARENA party and Domitien Ndayizeye of the pro-Hutu FRODEBU.
Facilitator Nelson Mandela's representative, Judge Mark Bomani of Tanzania, appealed at the conclusion session at the Arusha International Conference Center to the rebels to stop fighting and join the peace process.
Dissident Hutu rebel groups FNL and CNDD-FDD have not been part of the peace process, nor did they sign Burundi's peace agreement on August 28 this year in Arusha.
Mandela and his team have held separate talks with the rebels in South Africa, but have so far failed to get a cessation of hostilities.
The continuation of fighting on the ground is seen as a threat to the accord. However, Bomani disclosed that Mandela was still working "very hard" to obtain a cease-fire in Burundi.
"As a matter of fact, a number of meetings are already planned for next week and I believe that these meetings will at least culminate in the suspension of the hostilities," he added.
The three subcommittees have asked for more time to resolve the thorny issues, the leadership of the transition, the calendar for implementation, and technical corrections to the text of the accord, but Bomani said there was no funding for an extension of the meeting.
He suggested the delegates could take advantage of an upcoming international donor conference for Burundi to be held in Paris on December 11-12 to continue their discussions.
Meanwhile, the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC), which was launched by Mandela on Monday, held its first meeting Thursday under the chairmanship of Berhanu Dinka, representative of the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Great Lakes region, but no details were available.
Reports from Burundi said that fighting has been intensifying between government forces and the rebels in many parts of the country even after the signing of the peace and reconciliation agreement.
Burundi has been wracked by civil war since 1993 when the first democratically elected president Melchior Ndadaye, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi troops.
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